I’m sure I am not the only one who has made a mistake when listing an item. The only INAD return I have ever had to deal with had to do with a drawstring on a pair of pants, of all things. The pants did indeed have strings that tied at the waistband. The problem? They were just decorative! They didn’t actually go through the waistband to cinch anything up. Whoops. The (first) buyer requested a refund, and was a bit harsh – accusing me of intentionally misleading her. Obviously I had made a mistake, but it was an honest one. I mean really? What a silly thing to try and “mislead” someone about. She returned the pants, I relisted them (after updating the description), and they happily went to a different buyer not too long after.

Since then I’ve been MUCH more observant about the drawstrings on any pants I list . . . or so I thought. I couldn’t believe it last month when I pulled out the J CREW pants below to prep for shipping:

They look like a pair of drawstring pants, right? Nope! The string goes in one grommet and out the next, totally decorative right on the front. And I had listed them as drawstring. I couldn’t believe I made the SAME mistake again. Thankfully this buyer didn’t mind, and left me positive feedback soon after receiving them.

I have both listed and shipped several pairs of drawstring pants over the last few days, and you better believe I am triple checking them all to make sure the strings actually draw! Ha.

Anybody else have a mistake they’ve made on a past listing that they’re slightly paranoid or overly cautious about making again? Please share! Misery loves company.

Overall I think I do a really great job providing good customer service to my eBay buyers. With very few exceptions I only sell items that are new or in nearly new condition, I package items neatly (usually wrapped in tissue, with a packing slip that I write Thanks! 🙂 across), I always ship within one business day, I send a friendly e-mail to the buyer after the item has been dropped off at the PO to let them know the item is on its way. I know I add in extra steps that aren’t necessary, and they take time, but I like providing that level of service. And in return my buyers are generally very kind, friendly, gracious, and appreciative.

But every once in awhile, I do make a mistake. It happens, it sucks. Usually this takes the form of pulling out a clothing item I have just sold, only to find that it has a flaw. Like at the end of last week. I sold a beautiful cashmere sweater, and when I was packaging it up I noticed it had a small hole on the back. How I could have missed it I have no idea, because I always try to be sooo careful with cashmere sweaters, looking for flaws. And yet, there it was.

So, what would you do? Cancel the sale? E-mail the buyer to let them know, and ask if they still want it? Send it anyway, and hope they don’t notice? Or?

Here’s what I did. I packaged up the sweater, and mailed it. Then when I went to send the “your package has shipped” e-mail, I sent this instead:

Good morning,

I wanted to let you know that I dropped your package off at the Post Office yesterday (Thurs) morning. When I was packaging up the sweater I noticed a really small hole on the back. It’s not very noticeable, but it is there. The sweater is beautiful, and I hope that you are still able to wear it and get enjoyment out of it. But, I am SUPER picky about what I list on eBay, and I would never have listed this if I saw the hole earlier. I am going to refund your money in just a couple minutes. But I’m not canceling the order, the sweater is already on its way. I hope you still love it!

If you have any questions or concerns about this transaction please let me know.

Best,

Kari

Is it overkill? Maybe? Does it save me from getting the occasional negative feedback because I’ve owned up to an honest mistake, and tried to make it right? It’s certainly possible.

And in addition to saving myself from negative feedback, I also simply want to give the buyer a positive eBay buying experience. While the buyer probably won’t come back and buy from me again, I have hopefully spun my negative into enough of a positive that the buyer won’t be turned off from buying on eBay in the future. We’re all in this eBay thing together, and hopefully the good, responsible sellers outnumber the crummy ones.

This particular situation where I’ve missed a flaw on an item that has sold probably only comes up a couple times a year, and this is how I have generally chosen to deal with it. About a year ago I sold a NWT dress, only to realize that it somehow had a stain on the front. I had purchased several of the same dress at the same time, and obviously hadn’t looked over every single one closely enough, and of course the one with the stain was the only one I had left. I shipped the dress, refunded, and sent an e-mail of apology/explanation. I had looked up the buyer’s feedback history, and she left negative feedback a LOT. But that time? Not only did she leave me positive feedback, but she sent my money back to me(!), with a note saying she washed the dress and the stain “mostly” came out. So that scenario turned out much better than I could have hoped.

And the cashmere sweater I sent out last week? Here’s the feedback I got today:

Best seller on eBay, fast shipping, great communication with seller.

Of course there are no guaranties, but when buyers know we are trying to do our best, they appreciate it and often respond accordingly.

Oh, eBay. I wish I could fully understand you, and what’s actually going on behind the scenes. My sales have dropped off in a scary way the last couple months. I can’t figure out what’s going on. I’ve been listing new items, inventorying, ending old listings, tweaking and “sell similar” some, uploading new photos, adding BO to most. Started some auctions which I haven’t done in ages, offer free shipping on almost everything. What more do you want from me?!

About a week ago I got the following message from a potential buyer:

When I click on this item nothing happens. All my other shopping is fine. I did select 3X…I tried add to cart..buy it now…and went to your store. No matter what I click nothing happens. The odd thing is I bought 3 other pairs of shorts with no problem.

The potential buyer and I messaged back and forth a few times, but were never able to resolve the issue. Lost sale.

Today I got the following message from a different potential buyer:

I would love to buy these sailor pants, but I am getting an error code when I try to buy them. I contacted eBay and they said the error is on your end; a problem with your PayPal? Can you help me resolve this issue?

What the heck, right? So I called eBay. Talked to a very nice rep who sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Couldn’t find anything at all wrong with my account, no restrictions, no issues with Paypal, no nothing.

He said he will have another customer service rep look at my account with him to make sure rep #2 doesn’t notice something rep #1 might have overlooked.

He said he will submit a “bug ticket” to see if they can determine a reason why my sales are so.darn.slow. I have around 1500 items listed, and have sold one thing today for a total of $9. I have had THREE days in the last 30 with no sales at all. Before these three days, I had gone months and months without having a day with no sales.

It’s a mystery.

It’s also feeling like a mystery as to how I am going to pay for my boys’ school tuition, my almost 6yos birthday party, our yard maintenance, etc, let alone potential vacations I was hoping to schedule at the end of the year. This. Sucks.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Was it just a funk or phase and you came out the other end? Was there actually something wrong with your account? Please, do tell.

(Sorry for the downer post. I try to keep things pretty upbeat, but as I told the rep earlier the whole situation has me feeling pretty discouraged.)

I came home from a morning of thrifting to discover a negative feedback. It was a Fila snapback hat that sold last month and was shipped to Denmark.

So, the thing about the hat. Its tag said “one size”. But it was quite small. So I wrote “runs small” in three (3!) different places, included measurements, and this as well:

***Doesn’t specifically say if it is men’s, women’s or youth, but it seems to run small. May be most appropriate for youth. Please view measurements below.***

In bold. With asterisks. I tried to be as clear as possible about the size.

And then I got a negative, which said something like:

He said it was S/M, but it is to fit a baby

So. Nowhere in my listing did I say Small/Medium. It did run small, but it fit me, it definitely wasn’t for babies. And the wording was just a bit off. Was it a language/communication problem? I really don’t know. Another puzzling feedback.

It sucks when a buyer doesn’t contact you first when there is an issue.

It sucks when you feel like you did everything you possibly could to accurately describe an item, and then you still get stuck with a negative.

But it’s AWESOME when you call eBay, and in less than five minutes they agree that you accurately described the item, and that the feedback can “absolutely!” be removed.

I got my first negative in December on a Nike jacket that I had sold. Boooo.

She didn’t contact me first, just let me a negative.

Of course I immediately contacted her.

And got no response.

So I called eBay, and talked to a guy who really got on my nerves. He told me to contact her again, and send a feedback revision request. So I did.

And got no response.

So, today I finally called eBay again hoping I could convince them that SHE was the issue, not ME. Because really? “Description wasn’t what I thought.” It doesn’t say that the listing was inaccurate. It doesn’t say that the item has a flaw. It says it wasn’t what SHE thought. Basically, she didn’t actually read the listing. Because it had 8 photos, measurements, a written description, fabric content, etc. What more did she want?

The guy I talked to today at eBay was nicer than the first guy. And he agreed I did everything right, and that I basically got stuck with a sucky customer. A customer who if she had actually opened a case or asked for a refund then they could have had some discretion and closed the case in my favor, but because she didn’t do that and only left the feedback there was nothing to be done. The feedback is “non-removeable”. He kind of gave me a pep-talk, saying I was obviously a good seller and any buyer who cared to check my feedback would see that it was the buyer’s issue, not mine.

Description wasnt what I thought.

Reply (Dec-17-15 22:09):

No idea what issue was. E-mailed buyer 3 times to resolve with no response. 🙁

As a side note, the buyer has left feedback for several other sellers since mine, one neutral and the rest positive, and ALL of them include something like “I thought it was going to be bigger.” This buyer doesn’t seem to know her own size and probably shouldn’t be buying online.

In case you missed it, I’ve been dealing with a crummy seller, mentioned HERE.

So I’ve got good news and bad news.

The good news is that I did get a response from the seller later in the day on Monday in regards to the case I opened. He agreed to a full refund, which just came through. He also sent me this lovely message:Seller’s note:“Yeah sorry about the late response. My computer took a crap on me and I had to replace windows. I issued your refund today, it should show up tomorrow.”

He’s really got a way with words, doesn’t he?

The bad news is that eBay is not letting me leave any kind of feedback for him, negative or otherwise. When I try it just comes up with an error. Sigh.

I am so annoyed with a seller right now. He only sells one thing, and had a bunch listed. The listing prominently boasts: Free Next Day Priority Mail With Tracking!

Fast forward to:

Aug 5: Purchase item. Aug 11: E-mail seller asking for tracking number because I don’t see anything indicating my item has been shipped.

Aug 11: Receive e-mail from seller asking if I want a refund or if I still want the purchased item? And if I still want the purchased item to send him my address and he will send the package out. Aug 11: E-mail seller saying I still want my item, provide address.Aug 13: E-mail seller again asking if my item has been shipped.Aug 14: Receive e-mail saying seller has run out of stock. “Please give me your purchase date and full name so I can make refund.”

Aug 14: I respond (rather annoyed) with the requested info.

Aug 18: Still no refund or any further communication from the seller. (!!!!!) I just opened a case in hopes of actually getting my money back. I am really annoyed now.

I am feeling really tempted to leave negative feedback. Sellers like this give us all a bad name.

But then on the other hand, I feel bad thinking about giving negative feedback because I wouldn’t want someone to give it to me.

But on the other other hand, if someone contacted me with an issue I would have figured out what had happened ASAP, and wouldn’t let in hang around unresolved two weeks later.

Uh oh. That doesn’t look good, does it? I opened the e-mail and saw the eBay message below:buyerxxx let us know that “itemxxx” didn’t match the description and has requested a refund.Which was followed by the buyer’s message:Hi, I purchased a toy set of keys and I believe I was sent the wrong item. I got children’s toothpaste instead. Face. Palm. I quickly sent her the following response:Open the box! 🙂 I put the toy inside the toothpaste box to make sure that it made its way to you safely. If you have any additional questions or concerns though, please do not hesitate to contact me.I “upcycle” my packaging often and have never, ever had a complaint. Apparently this was a packaging fail, however.

UPDATE:

I’ve already heard back from the buyer:

Got it! I didn’t want to open the box in case it was a mix up! Thanks!

with myself! Argh. I have around 50 books listed on half.com. I pretty much just list them and forget them, until they sell. I probably sell around 3 per month. Not big money, but I’m happy to take it anyway.A few months ago I sold a book, logged into my account to ship it and discovered – I had sold a different book a couple weeks before. And never saw the e-mail. And now the book was quite overdue in being shipped. Noooooo! I immediately prepped the book for shipping, sent an e-mail with my profuse apologies, and refunded her money. We traded e-mails that went something like this:

Me: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, the book is in the mail, and here’s your money back.

Her: Wait. You refunded my money AND sent the book?

Me: Yes

Her: Wow. Thanks!

Phew! Potential bullet dodged.

Ever since then I’ve tried to log into my half.com account every week or so, just to make sure something like that didn’t happen again. So today I logged into my account just to check, and what did I see? I sold a book! On . . . . November 1st. And it should have been shipped by the 6th. Noooooo! Again? Really?

The book is now prepped. I am making an extra trip to the PO this afternoon to get it in the mail. It’s being sent to a teacher at a school. I hope she didn’t need it for a specific project, like, last week. I feel awful. And the harder part about this one is that it was purchased by an intermediary buyer. This group/business makes up about 90% of my half.com sales. I e-mailed a profuse apology and offered a refund, but it’s a bit awkward since I can’t e-mail the teacher directly to apologize, or send her the refund. I am already mad at myself, but I will be even more mad if this ends up with a negative. Because I’d kinda deserve it . . . and yet, it was so totally by accident.

Maybe I should set up a separate e-mail account just for eBay, so the e-mails wouldn’t get lost amongst everything else? I’d just have to remember to check it. Sigh.

It is a men’s adult talking Eeyore costume. They wanted $5 for it, which made me balk a little bit. I’m cheap, what can I say. But I went ahead and bought it, and I was really glad I did when I got home and looked it up. But then . . . it just sat around, taking up space. It’s hard to tell in this photo, but this costume is gosh darn big. It was hard to come up with enough floor space to be able to photograph it. But, eventually I took the photos, and I finally got around to listing it on October 13th. Really, what was I waiting for?! But, happily, it sold just six days later, for my asking price of $174.95. Yes, almost $170 more than I paid for it! I wish the story ended there.The buyer and I e-mailed back and forth quite a few times. He was hoping to receive the costume by Wed (10/24). It was late Friday afternoon at this point. I was fairly certain that it would get there without any problems (even though it had to go all the way across the country from OR to MA), but decided for the price he was paying I could put a little extra effort into it, and I packaged it up right away and made an extra trip to the PO. The buyer was very appreciative, and enthusiastic. I don’t know for sure, but I picture him as being a college student. This was one of his messages:

I already have tigger this is gonna be awesome!!

Thank you!!

I was tracking the package as it made its way across the country, and when I woke up to a message from him on Tuesday morning I was expecting another enthusiastic thank you. But instead I got this:

says undeliverable as addressed – can you confirm that you sent to:

xxxxxx

Yeah. Not good. This was his first-ever eBay purchase. Long story short, his zip code was listed incorrectly, which must have caused the problems. At first he wasn’t concerned because it was just one number off, but we both made calls to the USPS and got the same answer – the package had already been returned to sender. Here’s the interesting thing, at least on my end. I didn’t freak out. I didn’t get stressed. In an odd way it kind of felt like an eBay turning point. It made me realize that I really am in this for the long haul, and one sale is not going to make or break me.

I was disappointed, but really, I was more disappointed for the buyer because I knew how much he was looking forward to getting the costume. I received the costume back today, and refunded him his full purchase price. I’m out the $15 in shipping. Not great, but not the end of the world. I am going to go ahead and get it relisted right away, even though I’ve missed the Halloween window for this year. Who knows when somebody else will be feeling Eeyore-ish.